Parliament Debates.1668 to 1740. 19 Volumes.

1741-1742. Fine. 14 20 4. Volumes I. to XX. (no volume XIII). Full tan leather binding. Brown title plate. Gilt lettering and banding with decoration on the spine. Dimensions are for one volume. in brilliant condition. Today it is difficult to believe that before the advent of the 19^th century one could secure a prison sentence for publishing or possessing information on English Parliamentary debates.  These volumes include many of the most historic happenings in UK history including the Union of Scotland & England Before 1803 parliamentary debates were unofficial and as such the records that exist are incomplete and collected from various private sources. Hansard (the official record of debates) was introduced in 1803, but it remained a selective record of debates until it became the Official Report in 1909. Before 1771, the British Parliament had long been a highly secretive body. The official record of the actions of the House was publicly available, but there was no record of the debates. The publication of remarks made in the House became a breach of Parliamentary privilege, punishable by the two Houses of Parliament. As the populace became interested in parliamentary debates, more independent newspapers began publishing unofficial accounts of them. The many penalties implemented by the government, including fines, dismissal, imprisonment, and investigations, are reflective of "the difficulties faced by independent newspapermen who took an interest in the development of Upper Canada, and who, in varying degrees, attempted to educate the populace to the shortcomings of their rulers". Several editors used the device of veiling parliamentary debates as debates of fictitious societies or bodies. The names under which parliamentary debates were published include Proceedings of the Lower Room of the Robin Hood Society and Debates of the Senate of Magna Lilliputia. The Senate of Magna Lilliputia was printed in Edward Cave's The Gentleman's Magazine, which was first published in 1732. The names of the speakers were carefully "filleted"; for example, Sir Robert Walpole was thinly disguised as "Sr. R―t W―le". In 1771 Brass Crosby, who was Lord Mayor of the City of London, had brought before him a printer by the name of John Miller who dared publish reports of Parliamentary proceedings. He released the man but was subsequently ordered to appear before the House to explain his actions. Crosby was committed to the Tower of London, but when he was brought to trial, several judges refused to hear the case and after protests from the public, Crosby was released. Parliament ceased to punish the publishing of its debates as harshly, partly due to the campaigns of John Wilkes on behalf of free speech. There then began several attempts to publish reports of debates. Among the early successes, the Parliamentary Register published by John Almon and John Debrett began in 1775 and ran until 1813. William Cobbett (1763–1835), a noted radical and publisher, began publishing Parliamentary Debates as a supplement to his Political Register in 1802, eventually extending his reach back with the Parliamentary History. Cobbett's avocation for the freedom of the press was severely punished by the British Government. On 5 June 1810 William Cobbett stood trial for seditious libel for an article he wrote against the British Government which was published by Thomas Curson Hansard. Cobbett was found "guilty, upon the fullest and most satisfactory evidence". The court sentence read: "The court do adjudge that you, William Cobbett pay to our Lord the King a fine of £1000; that you be imprisoned in His Majesty's gaol of Newgate for the space of two years, and that at expiration of that time you enter into a recognizance to keep the peace for seven years—yourself in the sum of £3000, and two good and sufficient sureties in the sum of £1000; and further, that you be imprisoned till that recognizance be entered into, and that fine paid". The sentence was described by J. C. Trewin as "vindictive". The Court argued that Thomas Curson Hansard, who had "seen the copy before it was printed, ought not to have suffered it to have been printed at all" and was sentenced to three months imprisonment in the King's Bench Prison. Cobbett's reports were printed by Thomas Curson Hansard from 1809; in 1812, Cobbett's finances ran asunder and he divested himself of his proprietorship of both the Parliamentary Debates and Parliamentary History, which then "passed into the hands of Hansard in 1812". Cobbett's Parliamentary Debates became Hansard Parliamentary Debates, "abbreviated over time to the now familiar Hansard". From 1829 the name "Hansard" appeared on the title page of each issue. Neither Cobbett nor Hansard ever employed anyone to take down notes of the debates, which were taken from a multiplicity of sources in the morning newspapers. For this reason, early editions of Hansard are not to be absolutely relied upon as a guide to everything discussed in Parliament. Hansard outlasted competitors including Almon and Debrett, and the later Mirror of Parliament published by J. H. Barrow from 1828 to 1843; Barrow's work was more comprehensive, but he checked each speech with the Member and allowed them to "correct" anything they wished they had not said. The last attempt at a commercial rival was The Times which published debates in the 1880s. In 1878 a subsidy was granted to the Hansard press and at that point reporters were employed. Despite hiring contract reporters there were still widespread complaints about the accuracy of the debate reports. In 1889 Henry Hansard, the son of Thomas Hansard, broke the family connection with the debates. Hansard (the official record of debates) was introduced in 1803, but it remained a selective record of debates until it became the Official Report in 1909. More information about the history of parliamentary debates and Hansard can be found in the House of Commons factsheet. via Digital Bodleian (Free service, digital image of a published work). Hansard is the traditional name of the transcripts of Parliamentary debates in Britain and many Commonwealth countries. It is named after Thomas Curson Hansard (1776–1833), a London printer and publisher, who was the first official printer to the Parliament at Westminster. Thomas Curson Hansard (6 November 1776 – 5 May 1833) was an English pressman, son of the printer Luke Hansard. In 1803, he established a press of his own in Paternoster Row. In the same year, William Cobbett, a newspaperman, began to print the Parliamentary Debates. At first, these were not independent reports, but were taken from newspapers' accounts of parliamentary debate. In 1809, Hansard started to print Cobbett's reports. Together, they also published a pamphlet describing an incident in which German mercenaries had flogged British soldiers for mutiny; as a result, Hansard was imprisoned on 9 July 1810 in King's Bench Prison for libel. In 1812, facing bankruptcy, Cobbett sold the publication to Hansard, who continued to publish it for the rest of his life. In 1829, he added his own name to the parliamentary proceedings, giving it the title Hansard that it bears to this day. TC Hansard was the author of Typographia, an Historical Sketch of the Origin and Progress of the Art of Printing (1825). Hansard is buried in Kingston Cemetery. The original business remained in the hands of his younger brothers, James and Luke Graves Hansard (1777–1851). The firm was prosecuted in 1837 by John Joseph Stockdale for printing by order of the House of Commons, in an official report of the inspector of prisons, statements regarded by the plaintiff as libellous. Hansard's sheltered itself on the ground of parliamentary privilege, but it was not until after much litigation that the security of the printers of government reports was guaranteed by statute in 1840. After 1889 the debates were published by the Hansard Publishing Union Limited.